The last rung on the ladder Stephan King rewrite
by HotaruKitty
Summary: I rewrote this for a school assignment and feel it's more simple and understandable than the original. Also from a different characters point of view


**The Last Rung On The Ladder**** taken from Night Shift, written by Stephen King ****  
**

**By Cara-ann Jones**

**  
Larry was my older brother, I was always depending on him to look after me, to help me up when I trip, to catch my fall. Although I think I was a little bit to dependant. After we left home, Larry would move alot. He went to Law school and is now one of the best independant corporation lawyers in America. He is doing really well and has 3 assistants on full pay, lucky him. He was happily married until he got divorced. When my life began to fall, I sent Larry several letters, I wanted him to come and help me get my life back on track. Everytime he replied, it was from a different address with a bunch of forwarding stamps on it, so I knew he had moved again without telling me. I remember back when my mother died, we were just in High school and my dad lost our 300 acres of land. It was a tough time but Larry did well, he managed to get a football scholarship. But me, well, thats what I want to tell you about.**

It's about the barn thing, it was a Saturday, in the early days of November. I was 8, Larry was 10 and our parents had gone out for the day. Dad had left Larry a list of chores and we couldn't play until they were done, but that wasn't long. It was a cloudy day, but not cold all the time. On one of those days the best place to be was the barn because it was warm. There was an old ladder nailed to a crossbeam really high up in the third loft, and went straight down to the ground floor. Larry and I weren't allowed to go near it because it was rotten and shaky. Dad was supposed to put up a stronger one on many occasions but he never got around to it. We had counted the rungs, many times; there was 43 if you climbed all the way to the top and ended up 70 feet above the straw covered wooden floor. You then edged out to the end of the top beam and free fall 70 feet into the haymow. Even with your knees wobbling, sweat pouring from every inch of your body and your hands shaking, the dive into the soft bed of hay is worth it. It feels as if you take a huge fall, and live to tell the tail. It was forbidden to climb up the ladder, because if you were to lose your step or if the ladder gave way underneath you, you would hit the planking of the barn floor and probably die.  
That day began like a normal one, Larry stood at the bottom of the ladder, I stood next to him. 

**  
"Dare you," he said suddenly.  
"Dares go first" I quickly replied.  
"Girls go first" He replied straight after.**

**"Not if it's dangerous." I said smartly, I would go, but not first. He gave me with that look, 'C'mon Kitty, are you scared? Watch me then...' My real name is Katrina, but everyone calls me Kitty. It all started when I was a baby, and we had just gotten a kitten, apparently I was obsessed with it, and all through the day for weeks I would just repeat, 'Kitty, kitty, kitty.' After that everyone started calling me Kitty and I stopped saying it.  
"Okay, here I go" Larry said quickly. Larry weighed about 90 pounds, and was really thin, I was 20 pounds lighter than him. We had gone up before, but when we were much smaller, so we presumed the ladder would always hold our weight. As Larry started up the ladder, I turned up to watch him and could hear the Swallows singing.  
"Hi, down there" He called to me.  
"Hi, up there!" I called back. I watched him all that way up, walking, swaying, then he dropped off the edge, holding his nose in effect, and hit the hay. I didn't wait for him to come out fully and I began up the ladder. Its a long way 70 feet, you dont realise how high it is until you get to the top and by then your legs hurt making it even scarier going across the 12 foot beam. **

**"Hi, down there" I repeated.  
"Hi up there!" Larry said as I edged along the beam. I pulled back my arms and swan dived straight into the hay. It was such a refreshing feeling, like being reborn, that's how I always thought about it. The game went on for a while, we didnt notice the time go by, but when we saw the light change, our parents were due back really soon and we were covered in hay. We agreed on one more go each. Larry went first. He went up the ladder pretty fast, but it was different this time, the fun of the game seemed to had lost it's glow. He seemed scared, not the fun kind of tingly scared, the kind of fright you get when your terrified. I watched him plummet into the haystack and began my way up the ladder.  
"Hey, come down! It's not safe!" Larry yelled.  
"It'll hold me!" I called back confidentely. "I'm Lighter than you!" I said and continued up the ladder.   
"Kitty..." But it never got finished. Because that was when the ladder gave way, It just dropped from underneath me in a splintering crack and I clung to what was left of the ladder as tight as my little hands would hold it.  
**

**"Larry! Larry! Help me!" I was terrified. I clenched my eyes shut and held on for dear life. I didn't even hear him until a little while later when I heard the movement of hay.  
I was kicking my legs through the air wildly "Kitty! Just hold still! Hold still!" Larry called and started running around, I had no idea what he was doing. I heard him sneezing and started to feel my hands slip.  
"Larry, I can't hold on much longer!" My fear made my voice sounded high and dispairing.  
"Kitty, you've got to! You've got to hold on!"  
"Larry! The rung! I'ts letting go!" I began to kick my legs in panic as I could hear the squeaking of the partial ladder I was holding onto.  
"No!" He yelled at me "No! Stop that! Just let go! Let go, Kitty!" I just followed my instincts, I knew I would die either way, so I let go. It felt like I was falling forever, the whining of the wind around me, the blind fall through the barn. I had clasped my hands near my mouth and jolted on impact of the floorboards.**

**"Kitty?" I awoke to Larry, it was faint, but his voice. "Kitty?" He repeated.  
"Larry?" I managed to choke out. "Am I alive?" Was the first thing I had to ask. He leaned down and hugged me, I put my arms around him.  
I only broke my left ankle, it was 'a miracle,' as the doctor proclaimed it.  
**

**I stayed in bed for a few days, to rest my ankle and I had to have a cast. Larry came to see me just before bed time.  
"Hay. You put down hay." I said to him, quite dazed still.  
"Course I did" He replied. "What else would I do? Once the ladder broke there was no way to get up there"  
"I didn't know what you were doing." I said to him.  
"You must have, I was right beneath you!"  
"I didn't look down, my eyes were shut the whole time, I was to scared to open them."  
"You, you didn't know?" i shook my head. "And when I told you to let go, you just, did it?" I nodded "Kitty, how could you do that?"  
"I trust you with my life. I knew you were doing something to help me." I replied "Larry, Im really tired..." He nodded and left the room.**

I only had the cast on for a month, and all my friends had signed it. Dad replaced the ladder with a new, stronger one, and as far as I know, neither of us ever went up there again. But that wasnt the end of it, Because 9 days ago, I jumped off the top of an insurance building in L.A. I was despirate by that time, I couldn't do anything with my life, and I hadn't heard from Larry in months. It was my last resort. Although, I dont appreciate how they 'celebrated' my death. The headline reads: CALL GIRL SWAN-DIVES TO HER DEATH. How intriguing...

The letter I sent him before then asked him to come and see me, but he couldn't. He was to self-absorbed into his own life to even know that his own sister was suffering. After a while I stopped writing to him. I kept sending him birthday and Christmas cards, but he never sent any back. I just presumed he stopped caring about me. The last letter I ever sent him said this:

_**Dear Larry,  
I've been thinking about it alot lately... and what I've decided is that it would have been better for me if that last rung had broken before you could put the hay down. Your, Kitty  
**_**  
I just got tired of waiting for him to reply. I sent it 2 weeks before I jumped and it still didn't get to his new, new address in time. I always knew the hay would be there. But not this time Larry, Not this time.  
**


End file.
